For Thanksgiving, triple your fun with beer pairing

Tuesday

At this face-filling, belly-busting time of year, we like to list five or so beer styles that pair expertly with a Thanksgiving feast.

And we were going to do it again this year.

But then an idea struck: What about digging into the single finest style to accompany the best meal of the year?

It raised the question of what exactly that beer would be.

What is weighty enough to stand up to a bounty of flavors both savory and sweet, but light enough to reinvigorate the palate?

What is complex enough to add a component to the meal, but simple enough not to linger with too much authority?

Pilsner was an option, especially at the rate American craft brewers are adding the style to their portfolios.

So was the underappreciated brown ale.

And, of course, two of the most faultless food-pairing styles of all: saison and biere de garde.

But then the answer presented itself: tripel.

The classic Belgian style is bright and effervescent - most are bottle conditioned, which is key for those tight, Champagnelike bubbles - and shines beside a meal.

At its best, tripel is deeply complex, with a hearty backbone of yeast, spice and fruity sweetness. However it is faultlessly clean and finishes dry. Tripel sits higher on the alcohol spectrum - generally between 8 and 10 percent - but without being hot or boozy. No less of an expert agrees about its place on the Thanksgiving table than the Brewers Association, via its www.craftbeer.com/

In advance of the big meal, we drank through 10 tripels and found these five favorites. In alphabetical order:

Allagash Tripel (9 percent alcohol) This Portland, Maine, beer won a gold medal among 92 tripels at last month's Great American Beer Festival for a clear reason. Notes of white pepper mingle with underripe strawberry and peach to evoke the fall season with lovely rusticity. The most spice-forward beer on this list, but faultlessly balanced.

Brouwerij St. Bernardus Tripel (8 percent) The least flashy beer on this list, but it threads the needle with notes of honey, lemon, apple and mild fig-plum-raisin. Less spice than some others here, and a touch more sweet. But it delivers in the end with a round-meets-dry finish.

Brouwerij Westmalle Trappist Tripel (9.5 percent) The malt pops for a thicker, grainier body, balanced by strong notes of stone fruit and lesser elements of clove and banana. Weighty and boozy, but clean and balanced.

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